Sunday, September 27, 2009

It's the day after the longest I've ever run. 22km - in Banff. And I hurt. A lot. Calves, hammies, quads are all protesting the abuse, the lactic acid buildup. But it was worth it.

I'd decided it would be more of a training run than anything else- after all, no matter my time, it would be a PR. I'd use the run as a butt-kicker, to get my training kick-started again. It's been a while since I last posted, but July was okay for training, August was good, September was a lost cause. So I wasn't as prepared for Melissa's as I wanted to be.

Dr. Dan kept hinting that I could choose to do the 10k instead, and if I wanted to do that, then he'd drop down to that distance, too. But I said no-- I was determined to do the half marathon distance. Well, on race day, Dan decided to drop to the 10k anyway.

It turned out great, though. I enjoyed running by myself; for about the first 3km. That's about when I heard someone's Garmin beep at them, made a comment about it, and ended up running with a lovely lady from Magrath for the rest of the race. Angie and I chatted away, pulling each other along, encouraging each other, and just having fun. I paced her through the middle of the race, while I'm certain I would not have run at all in km 18-20 if she hadn't have been there next to me.

We were both proud of the fact that we only walked through the water stations in the last half- plus one 1-minute walk at about 20km. And, we both finished around the 2:15 mark, which of course was a PR for us both (it was her first 22k) and better than her goal!

Afterwards, I met up with Kim and Dan, and somehow managed to get food and water before I collapsed on the lawn to stretch. We then walked all over Banff, which kept me pretty loose. We even took advantage of the pool at the Banff Springs Hotel- they were staying there all weekend. A few kick sets, some floating, and some time in the hot tub felt amazing! The only thing that would have been better would have been an ice bath for my legs.

About PaddlePedalPlod

Paddle (Swim) Pedal (Bike) Plod (Run) is a personal blog, my quest for fitness as training for triathlon. Nothing commits one to a goal more than making it "public", and nothing is more public than a blog! In the past, I have trained with the University of Calgary Triathlon Club (UCTC) , and with the Shawnessy YMCA group, but right now I'm mostly running with the Country Hills Running Room Half-Marathon group. This Triathlon/ Running thing is really starting to become a lifestyle- everything starts to revolve around it...